Annie+Johnson


 * SUMMARY: On April 25, 1908, 32-year-old Annie Johnson died at Chicago's Wesley Hospital from complications of an abortion attributed to midwife Augusta Heiderich.**

On Thursday, April 23, 1908, 32-year-old homemaker Annie Johnson was taken by private ambulance to Wesley Hospital in Chicago, suffering form complications of a criminal abortion. She died on Saturday night, April 25.

Albert Stevens, age 39, was arrested as an accomplice to the fatal abortion. Mrs. Laura R. Flinn, one of Annie's friends, was held as a witness. Laura, who said that the abortion had been performed over her protests, identified midwife Augusta Heiderich as the abortionist. Heiderich was arrested and held by the grand jury.

Annie's life had been complicated. Born Cora Rankin of Quincy, Illinois, she married Lucien Johnson in June of 1905, but had lived with him for only five months. She had been living at the New York Hotel on State Street -- the same address where Stevens lived -- at the time of her death.

Sources:
 * "Woman Dead; Man Arrested," //Chicago Inter-Ocean//, Apr. 27, 1908
 * "Mystery in Death of Woman," //Chicago Daily Tribune//, Apr. 27, 1908
 * "Held for Deaths of Women," // Chicago Daily Tribune //, Apr. 28, 1908